A nine-month-old boy was fatally shot on Monday by his five year-old brother in northwest Missouri. Police suspect the child found a .22 caliber magnum revolver lying in the house.

According to the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, the children’s mother initially reported that her five-year-old son had shot her infant in the head with a paintball gun. Though it was determined upon the arrival of an ambulance and law enforcement to the location that the infant had been shot with a .22 caliber magnum revolver.

A Life Net Air Ambulance took the infant to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

A neighbor said the mother of the children, Alexis Widerholt, and her four sons were staying with the children’s grandfather in Elmo, Missouri, near the Iowa border.

Would any gun rights activists object to hellacious criminal negligence sentences for people who allow this shit to happen with their guns?

I'm usually not one for throwing the book at people, but there has to be some way to deter these instances where chidren are killed. Or maybe the penalties are stiff enough and this is just the cost of doing business.

Having a 5-year-old and 2-year-old myself who are so innocent it hurts because it's so beautiful, I have a tough time with these stories.

Would any gun rights activists object to hellacious criminal negligence sentences for people who allow this shit to happen with their guns?

I'm usually not one for throwing the book at people, but there has to be some way to deter these instances where chidren are killed. Or maybe the penalties are stiff enough and this is just the cost of doing business.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't call myself an activist, haven't shot a gun in at least a decade and it won't bother me if I never do again. But I have some qualms about aggressive gun control that stem from growing up around avid hunters and responsible gun owners.

So coming from that point of view, HELL YES to this. Don't take away a law-abiding citizen's right to own a gun, but let's punish the hell out of gun crimes and if a crime is committed using your gun you go to jail for a minimum of 25 years. If an innocent person is killed with your gun you go to jail for life.

Would any gun rights activists object to hellacious criminal negligence sentences for people who allow this shit to happen with their guns?

I'm usually not one for throwing the book at people, but there has to be some way to deter these instances where chidren are killed. Or maybe the penalties are stiff enough and this is just the cost of doing business.

Having a 5-year-old and 2-year-old myself who are so innocent it hurts because it's so beautiful, I have a tough time with these stories.

Click to expand...

Are there no laws on the books that would apply in such a case? Negligent homicide?

Would any gun rights activists object to hellacious criminal negligence sentences for people who allow this shit to happen with their guns?

I'm usually not one for throwing the book at people, but there has to be some way to deter these instances where chidren are killed. Or maybe the penalties are stiff enough and this is just the cost of doing business.

Having a 5-year-old and 2-year-old myself who are so innocent it hurts because it's so beautiful, I have a tough time with these stories.

Would any gun rights activists object to hellacious criminal negligence sentences for people who allow this shit to happen with their guns?

I'm usually not one for throwing the book at people, but there has to be some way to deter these instances where chidren are killed. Or maybe the penalties are stiff enough and this is just the cost of doing business.

Having a 5-year-old and 2-year-old myself who are so innocent it hurts because it's so beautiful, I have a tough time with these stories.

Click to expand...

I'm not an activist for or against guns. My buddy is a huge gun guy and has explained a lot of stuff to me, so if anything I lean pro-gun.
I think someone needs to be charged, but here's the problem - what will jailtime accomplish? Take away their rights to own a gun, but you cannot throw them in jail. A 5-year old who just killed their sibling is already going to have a messed up upbringing an taking a parent away isn't going to help.